New Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs, ‘Mosquito’

There are a lot of music videos where the narrative is ambiguous and the symbolism is hard to tease out. Take “Sacrilege,” for example, the first one from Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ recent Mosquito album. Others, like the title track here, are a lot more straightforward. And by “straightforward” we mean “hammer on the nail repetitive and literal.” That works too!

Watch Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Mosquito” video after the jump.

This time out, the brash New York City trio replaces model Lily Cole with a much less appealing star: a bloodsucking insect. Here’s how the B. Shimbe Shim-directed clip plays out, and see if you can follow along here: There is a boy and there is a mosquito. The boy has something the mosquito wants. Love. J/K! It’s his blood.

And sure enough, that’s exactly what’s happening here, as advertised. Or, at least we think so. We had to turn away for a minute because it was getting a little too — what’s the word? — gross. As the song builds up to its frantic climax, the titular hero engorges himself on the young boy’s blood, going wild on the rush of the feeding. Wait, is the boy on some kind of hallucinogenic? Is that why the mosquito’s getting such a glowing contact high? Maybe this video isn’t as straightforward as we thought.